Senior Naxalite Mallojula Venugopal, alias Sonu/Bhupathi, was among the 61 Naxalite cadres that surrendered before the police in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district, officials said on Tuesday.

The Naxalites turned themselves in to the Maharashtra police late on Monday night, an official said, as per a PTI report, adding that those who surrendered included a member of the central committee, as well as 10 members of a divisional committee of the outlawed CPI (Maoist).

70-year-old Venugopal was considered one of the most influential Maoist strategists in the organisation, and had long supervised platoon operations along the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border, the report added, citing unnamed sources.

More specifically, Bhupathi was a Politburo and Central Military Commission member: he was th

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